The current invention has subject matter in common with the inventor's U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/806,285, directed to an LED bulb, and Ser. Nos. 12/003,809, 12/073,889, and 12/894,865, directed to an LED light device having changeable position features, as well as the inventor's issued U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,618,150, 7,726,869, 7,722,230, which are all directed to LED track lights or removable LED-units on track-means for a variety of applications.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,618,150 and 7,726,869 disclose an LED track light having removable LED-unit(s) on the track-means(s), the removable LED-unit(s) being connected to the track means by resilient conductive means that allow the removable LED-unit(s) to be moved to any desired position when an outside force applied, while still providing good electrical contact and signal transmission. The LED-unit(s) can be replaced, assembled to, or disassembled from the ends of the track-means. Each of the LED-unit(s) can have any desired number of LED-means to meet preferred specifications, including brightness, size, dimension, color, functions, performance, and effects according to predetermined requirements. The track means can have any geometric shape so long as the shape allows the LED-unit(s) to be removable from the track-means.
The current invention can be used in a variety of applications for an LED track light as listed in the inventor's prior copending and issued patents, the simple LED track light construction providing a plurality of different lighting products for people to use while saving a lot of cost for tooling, printed circuit board (PCB) design, labor, and resources.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the track means of the LED track light may be made by an extrusion process that forms assemblies of one or more track-means. For example, a single extrusion tooling can be used to form a hexagon construction having 6 track-means to enable LED-unit(s) mounted on the track means to emit light beams in 6 directions. Furthermore, a single extrusion tooling also can be used to form an octagon construction having 8 surfaces that face outward and that enable at least 8 LED-unit(s) within the 8 track-means to emit light in up to 8 directions.
On the other hand, it will be appreciated that the multiple-surface(s) of the track-means can also be made by conventional skill and techniques other than extrusion, using different materials or procedures to get the same function or equivalent features to those of the LED track light concepts discussed in the inventor's prior issued patents and pending patent application. All such variations are intended to still fall within the scope of the current invention.
The LED track-means tooling is very simple and the cost is very cheap, which will allow people to easily construct different applications of an LED lighting fixture, LED bulb, or LED lighting for all purposes. Each track-means can be loaded with a different number of the LED-unit(s) to control the cost of the track-means, with fewer LED-units resulting in a lower cost and more LED-units resulting in an increased cost, so that the variation in the number of LED-units can be used to satisfy cost expectations of all different buyers.
Other features of the track-means include the ability to easily design the LED light device for certain purposes such as a corner light made up of “L” shape track-means in which the LED-unit(s) light beams are only emitted in two directions and no light is emitted into the corner to save a lot of power consumption. In another example, a downwardly facing light for office or production line use can be designed with one track-means that faces down so that no light is emitted to the top or side position to again save power consumption, in contrast to the conventional fluorescent tube or incandescent bulb which has too many light beams and wastes power by illuminating unnecessary areas. The reduction in power consumption is made possible by (1) the narrow viewing angle of the LED-means; (2) the use of a low cost substrate, and preferably a track means, to arrange any number and variety of LED-means; (3) the use of removable LED-unit(s) with resilient conduct means to provide electric signal contact at any time and any location; (4) the use of an ideal geometric shape and dimension of the track-means and LED-unit(s) to perfectly meet different lighting requirements, such as those of an LED bulb, which can be achieved by using super small track-means in hexagon or octagon shape with any number, from one to N, of tiny removable LED-unit(s) depending on production or cost considerations. Alternatively, for a floor light, a larger dimension of track-means and LED-unit(s) is required. The invention enables easy scaling of the track means from 2 or 3 inches for an LED bulb, 2 feet for a desk lamp, 3 feet for a floor lamp or LED florescent tube, 4 feet for an undercabinet light, and 6 feet or more for a downwardly facing work light.
The current invention also provides a method of making an LED-bulb that replaces all kinds of market-available incandescent bulbs with copper bases, by using super compact size track-means and LED-unit(s).
The current invention also teaches how to use an elongate or tubular track-means and LED-unit(s) to make light devices that can replace all sizes of conventional fluorescent tube at a lower cost by using extruded hexagon or octagon shaped track-means with 6, 8, or more surfaces that can be loaded with LED-units to emit light in multiple directions.
Furthermore, the same multiple-surface extruded track-means can be formed in a super long length and simply cut to a desired length such as 1 feet, 2 feet, 3 feet, 4 feet, 5 feet, up to 10 feet, or longer so that it can easily be put into an outside housing, cover, or lens to provide a track means having a same length as an existing fluorescent tube length, including the two end contact terminals so as to easily fit into any existing fluorescent tube housing, base, frame, or holder, the light device incorporating proper circuit means to match the two end contact terminals' output current signal and change the current signal into a signal that drives the said LED-units or LED-means for desired illumination according to predetermined functions, effects, performance, etc. The multiple surface extrusion unit may also form multiple track-means that enable installation of LED-unit(s) at desired locations to enable the LED fluorescent tube (LED-Flo-Tube) to emit light beams to specified area(s) such as an area downward of the tube which forms a 60 degree arc relative to the diameter of the LED-Flo-Tube, with no light being emitted to the remaining of 300 degrees of the tube's diameter away from the downward location to limit the illumination area for the said LED-Flo-tube and substantially reduce power consumption relative to the traditional fluorescent tube.
It will also be appreciated that each LED-unit(s) for the LED-Flo-Tube may extend ⅕ of the super long length of the LED-Flo-Tube length. It is much easier to make a ⅕ length LED-unit(s) than to make a unit that extends the whole length of the tube according to current market practice. Consequently, each track-means only needs 4, 3, 2, or 1 pieces of the LED-unit(s) to be installed into the super long length so that the LED-unit(s) will still be removable. Hence, the use of longer track-means with longer LED-unit(s) will save labor, time, costs, materials, and assembly time, and avoid the disadvantages of existing LED tube lights. This embodiment thus provides great improvements to the LED-Flo-Tube by: (1) limiting the arc of the circle that is illuminated to save power consumption; (2) using longer LED-unit(s) to reduce the assembly time involved in installing the LED-unit(s) into the track-means; (3) preferably using extrusion units having multiple surface track-means to provide the best light emitting directions, as desired; (4) selectively installing LED-units in only a portion of the track means, and leaving the remainder of the track-means not installed with LED-units or with a limited number of LED-unit(s) to meet some customer requirements for low-cost without having to change the basic extrusion unit as the main construction frame, saving not only cost, but also time and labor to redesign different LED-Flo-Tubes with selected specifications.
None of the prior art LED-bulbs, such as the ones disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,784 (Chliwnyj et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 6,220,722 (Begemann), U.S. Pat. No. 6,499,860 (Begemann), and U.S. Pat. No. 7,254,089 (Vogelsang et al.), uses a track-means and removable LED-unit(s) to arrange a plurality of LEDs in the LED bulb. The current invention use a simple preferred procedure to extrude track-means having more than one surface(s) and thereby enable a desired number of LED-unit(s) to be arranged within the multiple track-mean(s) on the multiple surface(s) of the extruded single piece, the LED-units each including a desired number of LED(s). Whenever a change in brightness, color, cost, or photometric properties is required, the designed can simply change LED-unit(s) to one with the desired LED specifications and number to meet market requirements in a short time without having to design a new PCB and laboriously install LEDs on the new PCB. Hence, the current invention provides big improvements in the LED bulb.
The current invention may be applied to an LED bulb of the type disclosed in the inventor's copending U.S. patent appl. Ser. No. 11/806,285.
The current invention may also utilize principles disclosed in the inventor's U.S. patent appl. Ser. No. 12/622,000, in which an LED light device is provided with certain blocking means, cutouts, openings, windows, and/or optics means, to allow LED light beams travelling within a light-transmitting medium with multiple reflective means and an appropriate LED position to create geometric art, the present invention utilizing track-means and LED-units to provide LEDs with the desired orientation, position, or location in a three-dimensional coordinate system.
The features of the current invention, and in particular the inclusion of a track-means and removable LED-units, results in a big improvement by enabling people to avoid spending money, time, labor, and resources in order to meet new requirements for different light device specifications. The current light device lets the consumer to make its own light device with preferred LEDs at certain locations because the consumer can easily change the position of the removable LED-units. The consumer can also add or reduce the number of LED-unit(s) to provide different light brightness and cost, or add, reduce, or replace the LED-unit(s) to provide one or more desired colors and illuminate selected areas. Still further, the consumer can also add a preferred shade, cover, housing, or decorative means to further customize the light device. Hence, the current invention of a light device with display means having track-means and removable LED-units is a perfect idea.
It will be appreciated that any alternative or improvement having a same function, equivalent features, or revised components may fall within the scope of the current invention, including features and components described in the inventor's copending or issued U.S. patent applications.